Tag Archives: Tom Clancy

Review for Tom Clancy Act Of Defiance by Andrews and Wilson

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I read Red October years after it came out. It’s the only one of Tom Clancy’s books I didn’t read in the 80s. I read Red Storm Rising in paperback and Patriot Games in Hardcover. I did the same with Clear & Present Danger and Cardinal Of The Kremlin, my favorite of Tom’s novels. I always read ahead of my grade. I read Red Storm in 6th grade.

I saw The Hunt For Red October in the theaters the weekend it came out. It’s still one of my favorite 80s movies.

Let’s get into Act of Defiance. I will limit my spoilers as much as possible. If you’ve read Red October, that’s good. It will help you with Act Of Defiance. There are many callbacks to it throughout the book. There are also callbacks to Patriot Games and Clear & Present Danger, but Red October is front and center throughout the novel since this is about another Russian submarine.

It begins with how many of Tom’s books start. They set you up with an idea and chase that idea throughout.

While Red October was our introduction to Jack Ryan, Act Of Defiance begins with an idea but also tells us something about Red October that we didn’t know. This pushes the story in a vastly different direction.

Marko Ramius knew what he had and the possibilities of his boat, The Red October; this novel starts before the Red October. The Captain of the Belgorod knows what he has as well. He’s determined to make Jack Ryan pay. A theme and story that I will let the reader discover.

While Red October is mainly about Jack Ryan finding his way, Act Of Defiance is about his daughter, Katie Ryan. She does most of the same things her father did in Red October. The callbacks to the book and the movie are fantastic. I enjoyed them.

The cat-and-mouse game starts as the hunt is underway for Belgorod. It’s a different game with the same consequences as Red October but with far worse intentions.

Russia is not the power it was with Marko Ramius and the Red October. A group decides they want to change this. We’ve seen this scenario play out since the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s been in books, movies, and video games.

It is done very well in Act of Defiance. It’s one of the better tales with the trope. I think this is a trope now.

While the novel played out, I enjoyed Katie Ryan’s character. I hope more story ideas come from Red Storm with her in it.

I blew through most of this book in a day. But I read quickly. I always have. I give this a five. It’s well written, the story is good, and the placement of Katie Ryan reminds me of her dad, Jack.

My Political Thriller Novel: Disunion By Force

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If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’re aware that I wrote a political/military thriller.

Now it’s time to produce the goods and tell you something about the book.

Disunion By Force, written under a pen name, Brian J. Stone, comes out on November 8th. It’s up for an order of physical copies and ebooks everywhere you can purchase a book.

It followed Jackson Reed, a retired US Air Force pilot, investigating a lost top secret military drone.

Jax’s investigation leads him to the top tiers of the political spectrum. He learns a lot about why he was forced out of the Air Force.

I wrote Disunion By Force during the lockdown in 2020. I wrote it from April third until May 4th. Its first draft came in at just over 100,000 words. I’ve edited it, and with the help of my editor, it is down to 79,000 words. I got rid of a lot of things that didn’t work.

Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising was my first experience with books in the genre. I was twelve at the time. I’ve always read above my grade level. I read the early Jack Ryan books and the Mark Greaney books. I am halfway through Greaney’s Grey Man books.

I’ve always wanted to write books like this but didn’t out of fear I’d screw it up. I think Disunion is a good book. I enjoyed writing Jax. He’s a fun, flawed character. I have more in store for him in other novels. I intend to start writing the next book in January and have it ready for publication in July.

I hope you’ll buy a copy when it releases on November 8th.

Embracing what you fear

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As I’ve said numerous times on here, I avoided writing certain books because of things that happened as a kid.

I worried about what it said about myself, what it said about my writing, and whether my mind wanted to go in too many places at once. This fear has permeated me since I put pen to paper in high school.

The past week was one where I had to have talk with myself about this. I can’t move forward in my writing without either adjusting to writing military/spy/political thrillers, as well as horror, or I can stop writing one or the other. I chose to adjust.

Growing up in the 80’s Tom Clancy was the king of the techno-thriller. I looked up to him as a storyteller. Writing in that playground always scared the hell out of me. Mostly because I am not nor have I ever been in the military, CIA, FBI, or any other acronym.

But writing happens and last April I wrote a book in that genre and it scared the hell out of me for a couple of reasons.

One: I felt it was good.

Two: The fear of judgement from others about writing in genre, and that I’ve said numerous times how disrupted my childhood was because I felt forced to read those books.

But maybe it’s not so much that I felt forced, but that there’s the longstanding obstacle of my relationship with my father. He chose those books and I read them, even though there were other books I wanted to read, I read those.

I attribute my knowledge of history and politics to my father, something that maybe I should deal with personally.

That I’ve now chosen to write in whatever genre rears its head, is possibly a breakthrough for me.

I avoided writing these books because of childhood trauma. As I consider it now, those books did more to help me navigate my teenage years and early twenties, than perhaps anything except Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

The Chronicles helped me deal with other things.

Now that I’ve gone and changed my author’s bio, and all of my bios on social media, I’m ready to deal with the fact that I love spy books for the simple fact that I enjoy them. I enjoy the hell out of writing them and if not for my father pushing them on me I wouldn’t be writing them today.

Here’s a writing fact for you. I read Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising in sixth grade. That book stayed with me as have most of Clancy’s books.

Have a pleasant week. I’ll be here this week.